Readers, I got it.Say hello to Big Daddy. Thanks to an amazing deal from Adorama Camera, all of your encouragement, a boost from our savings, endless hours of research and Neel saying, "You need to do it. Sometimes you're too tentative," we brought this puppy home. I've been too busy to do much more that get him out of the box, but that's okay. We're getting used to each other slowly. From across the room. So far, I've taken all of three pictures with it, the first of Neel. I'll have to post it here sometime, for posterity.

Speaking of posterity, here's a picture of me with my original DSLR, a Christmas gift from my dad. One of the best gifts I ever got. (Although the necklace I'm wearing in that picture, which was Neel's gift that year, was pretty awesome too!) We're calling her Old Faithful now, and I feel so grateful to her. It's so funny to think of how different things are now, getting Big Daddy, than they were back when Old Faithful moved in. I knew so little then, but I just started snapping away! She's an awesome back-up to have.

Big Daddy is a very different animal. Bigger, more heft in my hand. Already I can tell that the dials are more intuitively placed. The main difference between Big Daddy and Old Faithful is that Big Daddy is a full-frame camera, where as Old Faithful (as are most consumer level DSLRs) is a crop sensor. Here's an article that explains the difference, and if you're interested I can throw a totally lame-o tutorial up here on the blog sometime too. For me, the difference was gasp-worthy. I can't wait to start playing around.

I likely wouldn't have done it without all of your encouragement. Without you nudging me along, telling me that I'm worth it. That my work is worth it.

The theme for this week's Project 52 is "Up." I'm stepping up my game.